BULL DARTS

2012-01-20T18:27:00.001-08:00

I'm drinking red wine from a box…that is, I'm drinking red wine poured from a box into a wine glass…the last wine from that box, in fact…

2011-11-26T21:24:00.001-08:00

Normally, I'd never read Henry James. But times are strange…

2011-11-16T19:31:00.001-08:00

Is it just me, or are there other people on this planet? That's really been bothering me lately…

2011-11-06T18:31:00.001-08:00

So the peanut crop falls short by 13%, and peanut butter immediately jumps nearly 200% in price. Latest version of an old story, but still…

2011-11-04T21:55:00.001-07:00

When did determining the beginning of human life come within the province of popular vote?

2011-11-04T21:36:00.001-07:00

How come no one gets down on their lousy, stinkin' knees and begs me to become a freemason?

2011-11-01T17:54:00.001-07:00

Anything described as "a done deal, just a few details to work out" is, in practical terms, doomed.

2011-10-31T18:05:00.001-07:00

You can, for sound and sensible reasons, cancel Halloween events, but Halloween itself still happens…

2011-10-25T15:40:00.001-07:00

Facebook today is saying my account's unavailable due to a site issue. Oh, the humanity!

2011-10-23T11:04:00.001-07:00

I'm glad I don't live a PG-13 life. Keeping the f-bombs down to one every two hours would be very trying.

2011-10-13T09:17:00.001-07:00

Today on Name That Suspicious White Powder, we have a standard business envelope, a priority mail envelope and a Gucci handbag…

2011-10-05T20:58:00.001-07:00

First ever Apple purchase: a Mac IIci, upgraded to 5 (count 'em!) megabytes of RAM and a 250 megabyte hard disk. Sweet, sweet machine…

2011-10-05T09:51:00.001-07:00

‎"My morals ain't shaky, they just hit turbulence a lot."
—Anonymous

2011-10-04T21:18:00.001-07:00

Decision time: kelp, or freeze-dried halibut?

2011-10-01T12:40:00.001-07:00

Entertain me, world, or it's off with your head!

2011-09-26T22:20:00.001-07:00

Sue and I have taken up Frisbee boxing. We didn't intend to, it just kinda happened…

2011-09-25T19:11:00.001-07:00

Thank you, thank you, it's good to be here. The emolument was most satisfactory…

2011-09-22T17:42:00.001-07:00

AMEN Sandwich Cookies…for when someone says to give 'em one.

2011-09-21T17:30:00.001-07:00

REM is calling it quits. The B-52s are on-again, off-again. C'mon, Athens, GA, what else you got?

2011-09-20T22:16:00.001-07:00

My dream? To run the lip balm and hand lotion concession at a salt mine.

2011-09-18T18:20:00.001-07:00

I'd love to reinvent myself, but I simply can't decide on a color scheme.

2011-09-13T21:32:00.001-07:00

The latest pole dance craze…the TSA Grope-Search!

2011-09-07T13:07:00.001-07:00

My new band: RACCOONS EAT JUNIOR'S LUNCH

2011-08-31T23:47:00.001-07:00

If we replaced our current crop of prominent politicians with reality show contestants, would we notice the difference?

2011-08-24T16:09:00.001-07:00

Never mind being carnivores, herbivores or omnivores…our big problem is being petrol-vores.

2011-08-23T17:03:00.001-07:00

Qaddafi's new address: a secret (for now) compound in Pakistan.

2011-08-18T16:04:00.001-07:00

Markets go up…markets go doooooown…

NANOWRIMO 2010

2010-11-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is my second year as a serious contender in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), and so far things have been going pretty well. I've managed to stay ahead of the basic word count, and the tale I'm spinning, in many ways decades in the making, is sailing along and surprising me more than a little. I had no idea these characters were going to light up like this and that I could keep from bogging down in details, which is all too often what derails my authorial efforts.

Fiddling With Essentials

2010-08-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

When it comes to costumed superheroes it is always about the costumes and the people inhabiting them, never about just one or the other. The costumes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had already undergone significant revision from their original versions by the beginning of the Silver Age, yet it is such revised versions that are largely regarded today as their "classic" looks. This happened because the essential lexicons of the original versions of the costumes were carried over. Ridiculous as it may seem on the face of it, Batman must have pointy ears on his cowl batwing shrouds to be Batman, Superman must have a big red S on his chest and a billowing red cape to be Superman, and Wonder Woman must have the red bodice with gold appointments and blue shorts with white stars on them to be Wonder Woman. These aren't just decorations, these say who these characters are. Remove them, and the costumes are rendered mute.

It has to do with continuity. The original version of the Flash effectively disappeared from the comics racks at the start of the 1950s. The idea of the Flash was revived five years later, but as a new character with a new costume on what would eventually come to be understood as an entirely different planet Earth. And it proved the same for such characters as The Atom, Hawkman, and Green Lantern. This was re-imagining on an enormous scale, but years-long gaps between versions of these characters was enough to bring up an entirely new generation of readers that had no ready awareness of or investment in the originals.

Domestic Abuse, Nationwide

2010-03-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm for some things in the new healthcare legislation, I'm not for other things, but what I have no tolerance for are the hate factions that are using it as an excuse to rise up like rancid grease and spew on everything. They claim they love this country, but like abusive spouses they make that claim while yelling and hitting and breaking things and listening to nothing but their own rage. And how many of them really know, or would dare confront, what it is they're really mad at?

Catching Way Up

2009-10-18T19:07:00.001-07:00

Much, much belated observance of the passing of "Uncle" Walter Cronkite on July 17, 2009. Funny how near that was to an earlier post of mine mentioning that he was still alive (as of that writing). We just never know.

After the Transition

2009-10-06T22:03:00.001-07:00

I cannot say that I have ever been terribly fond of doing the IT on our home computer systems. Even with Macs, so many things can go wrong and will go wrong if you even look at them funny. I'd say it's better than being a greeter at Wal-Mart, but I've never been a greeter and Wal-Mart so what do I know?

How Things Go Sometimes

2009-06-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

Nearly forty years ago a genuine musical genius/icon passed away, victim of a demented assassin. John Lennon's death was reported on CBS by none other than Walter Cronkite, who certainly knew of Lennon, but was clearly bemused by the outpouring of grief that followed his murder. Cronkite was not far from retirement by that time, but it was still nice, even somewhat comforting, that he was on the job while so much of the world was reeling from so senseless a loss.

Michael Jackson had his time in the sun, and is certainly an icon of sorts, but it's hard to call him a musical genius. And his death, while startling, is not remotely the tragedy that Lennon's murder was. Worse, his death is the latest thing to go up in lights at the top of the marquee of the trashy circus the news media has become. There's no "Uncle Walter" to provide sanity, much less dignity, to the proceedings.

It's ironic that both Lennon and Jackson died just as they were coming off hiatuses from performing and recording. We'll never know where they might've gone if they'd lived to see their comebacks through. But "Uncle Walter" Cronkite, as of this writing, is still with us, having enjoyed one of the longest retirements of any well-known TV anchorman.

The Way

2009-04-24T23:18:00.000-07:00

The problem with trying to establish The Way is that going any way at all depends on where a person is and where that person wishes to go. Is there but one road, one bridge, one tunnel, suitable to the goals of each and every person? Can one road, one bridge, one tunnel get each and every person from where they are to where they wish to go? To suppose such for ordinary travel is blatantly absurd, as we can’t all be and aren’t all in one and the same place and heading for one and the same destination.

And yet, for the vastly more complex process of traveling from birth to death, there persists this idea that there can be only one Way. And while the case stated may suggest we all start from the same point and end at the same point, it isn’t nearly that simple. None of us share the same schedule, nor are we each blessed with precisely the same mental, physical, spiritual, educational, political and material resources for the journey—not at the start, not during the journey, and not at the end. No one life can be lived in exactly the same way as another, and no one Way will ever be sufficient to handle all the traffic.

Human history has demonstrated this more times than any sane person would care to count. Yet these demonstrations weigh like feathers on the consciences of those who insist that there is one Way and one Way only.

So what is The Way? Depends…do you want get through life quick or take the scenic route?

Facebooking the World!

2009-03-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

Discovered Facebook in the interim since my last posting, and have been going FB crazy! As a result this ol' blog's been kinda neglected. Then again, I can't say much has shifted in the world scene since my previous remarks, except to pretty much bear them out. Still, one can hope it's early yet, and that some things might start showing signs of turning around before the year's out.

Oh, and about Gemstone…I think we've seen the end of classic Disney comics in the US, at least for a while. Still doing some things for Egmont Creative, so I'm keeping my hand in with Disney comics as such, but it's still nothing like the heady days of Gladstone (especially Gladstone I, as everyone likes to call the first phase). Maybe things will turn around, but at the moment I can't summon much hope in that.

On the less grisly side, I've discovered two new authors (new to me, that is): Sherman Alexie and Diana Wynne Jones. The first is the first modern author I've read in ages, and the first American Indian writer I've ever read ever, while the latter does stuff that anyone going through Harry Potter withdrawal ought to like.

Up To Now

2009-02-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

It's been very quiet these past several weeks, so I've had nothing to offer here of late. Oh sure, there's the new Prez, but what can I say that hasn't been said by bloggers far faster on their feet than I'll ever be. He's in, he's knucklin' down, he's bangin' his cabinet and agenda into shape, we'll see what happens.

The Market continues to blunder like a blind three-legged elephant towards some end that may be difficult to particularize but is bound to be anything but pretty. Meanwhile economic pundits lament the unwillingness of cash-strapped consumers to spend themselves into further ruin to keep this economy that has unabashedly betrayed them shored up. Did they not get the memo? Elvis has left that building, guys!

But hey, the Cardinals did a-okay against the Steelers yesterday, making it one Super Bowl I was glad I actually watched. And the hulu.com add with Alec Baldwin took the prize for best commercial bar none.

Well, now for a round of Pocket Tanks. Night.

My Favorite Pixars

2008-12-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

My favorite Pixar films in order? I thought you'd never ask:

The Incredibles

Finding Nemo

Toy Story 2

Ratatouille

Wall-E

Toy Story

Monsters, Inc.

Cars does not appear on the list because that one just doesn't work for me. At all.

2008-11-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

Things I'm thankful for (December 1st edition):

My wife

The freelance life

Our cat

Our guinea pig

The Brothers

Our decision some months back not to put all our dough in the market

Books

Things I'm not thankful for:

The continued absence of my Dad (who passed away in October of 2006)

The hijacking of my political party by idiots, gasbags and flagrant fiscal, social and religious hypocrites

The market crash

The cancellation of "Pushing Daisies"

2008-11-10T22:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of a Sea Harrier taking off from the deck of an amphibious assault ship. This is a variant of the plane that helped the British win the Falkland Islands skirmish back in the day.

This is the only VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) capable fixed-wing fighter in the Western inventory, and has been for several decades. Though it cannot reach supersonic speeds, it has served as an effective close-support weapon for the Navy and the Marines. Its special abilities make it ideal for amphibious operations, allowing it to operate from flight decks on many of the same ships that also transport and land Marines and their equipment. This largely negates the need for these landing forces to be accompanied by conventional carriers or to be within range of land air bases.

I'm posting this mainly to test the placement of images on my blog. And I think it's kinda pretty.

Stop the Badness! Revisited

2008-11-09T09:12:00.001-08:00

We've elected ourselves a new president, and I feel, right now, that maybe we, as a nation, have done something that could really make a difference. Sure, it's nice that Congress is also weighted to the new prez's party, but history – recent history, at that – has shown that's no guarantee of equanimity between the executive and the legislative. We'll just have to see how that plays out, but the fact remains that history has been made, a rubicon has been crossed, and maybe, if we're careful, we might, as a nation, make something that could genuinely be called progress.

Okay, so the markets didn't calm down after the election as much as I'd hoped…in fact, didn't calm down at all. I remain hopeful.

At least OPEC's latest ploy to keep oil prices above $100 a barrel didn't pan out. I don't imagine those folks will have to cry in their beer for long, but it's nice our pocketbooks get a little relief from the recent succession of hammer blows.

A Little Signification

2008-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

One investment I made, 20 years ago, has turned out very well indeed. It was then, at the tender age of 31, that I married Sue, who took me for better or for worse. Brave girl!

Today we made the final installment on a small memento to those two decades, and it looks quite dazzling on Sue's right hand. Whenever we look at it we can remember, in the sparkle, how well those "I do"s have paid off!

Stop the Badness!

2008-10-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

As I sit here proofreading the lettering of a volume of manga (part of what I do for a living), I now pause to ponder that eternal question…

What the heck is going on?!

I greatly fear we're about to elect ourselves a new President whose administration will make the Shrub years look like a golden age by comparison. Seriously, whoever gets in office will either have more screws loose than the hardware bins at Home Depot or have to spend so much time defending who and what he is to the willfully moronic press that neither will have any capacity to deal with the very grim prospects confronting our beleaguered world.

Now, it's my expectation that the markets will calm down once the election's over, but there seems little likelihood that the crashing losses of the last several weeks will be recovered anytime soon, if ever. So many houses of cards have fallen in such quick succession that one begins to wonder if there was ever anything solid undergirding Wall Street in the first place. More and more it looks like the foundational mechanisms of investing will have to be reinvented.

OPEC promises new, lower production quotas, which is no surprise at all, since they're now aggressively determined to recapture the $100-plus price for a barrel of oil. Our addiction to cheap oil has, of course, kicked us in the teeth lately, and I just hope that we aren't allowed to forget that pain and return to our willful, My-Right-As-A-'Murikan gas-guzzling ways. In that spirit I find I dare declare, "Bring it, OPEC!"

Well, that's what I got right now. Back to the manga…

Apple Update

2008-10-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

At long last I report in, and sad to say my wife's PowerMac G5 was terminal. Oh, it could have been fixed, but for the repair price-plus we just went ahead and got her a new iMac, which includes all the latest bells and whistles and allows her to have dual monitors (her 23" cinema display still works fine). Now we have a dead box to do something with…just not sure what yet.

Woe In ITLand

2008-08-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

My wife has been the victim of more than her share of computer related headaches over the past year. First the battery in her PowerBook Titanium G4 fizzled, and the replacement I ordered worked for a while and then fizzled just as thoroughly as its predecessor. Our local Mac tech said there's nothing wrong with the computer, we just need to get a battery that seats properly. Since Apple no longer makes the batteries (and charges a fortune for back stock items), we're left to take another stab at a third party unit with no real confidence it'll do the trick.

Next came the failure of the battery in her APC UPS. This is not such a problem, there are plenty of options for replacement, but it's still annoying.

Now, as she has reported on her blog, Color and Caffeine, her PowerMac dual processor G5 tower has gone on the fritz and is in hospital. I'm confident The Beast will be back up and running anon, but I don't blame her for feeling rather perturbed by this run of tech misfortune.

While we have been using Macs since late 1992, and this is by far the worst spate of trouble we've had in all that time, it does make me wonder, now that she's had her three bad strokes…am I next?

Talkin' Movies 2

2008-07-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Three movies about food, none of which is Tom Jones:

Babette's Feast – I've only seen this once, but this tale of a French political exile taking refuge in a community of Danish Lutherans features some very toothsome preparations of very simple foods, as well as an amiable yet subtly suspenseful dinner party. I don't believe there's another film in all of cinema history in which the heroine triumphs over her nemesis by simply excelling in the kitchen.

Eat Drink Man Woman – A true don't-watch-this-hungry wonder from Taiwan. The "stunt cooking" alone will make your mouth water, but this robustly romantic tale of a widowed master chef at the end of his professional endurance and the struggles of his three grownup daughters to find their way in the world surprises at nearly every turn.

Tampopo – This first, and most iconic, noodle western from Japan has a wandering spirit, but never strays too far from the main plot of a noodle shop owner and the five men who ride in to aid in her quest to make the perfect bowl of ramen. This may sound altogether silly, but the characters are superbly played and easily convince you that this goal is more than worth the struggle. As for the famous egg yolk exchange scene…well, it simply has to be seen to be believed.

Three Days of Rain in One Week!

2008-07-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Monsoon season as arrived for real here in northern Arizona. After a virtually rainless spring, we've had three major days of rain - July 1st, 4th and today, the 6th. Not sure it's enough to stop the bark beetle, which in the past several years has devastated our stands of Ponderosa pine, but it might be enough to slow 'em down a little. Anyone who thinks it's our famous wildfires that destroy forests around here, sorry to disappoint; the bark beetle is far more destructive, and there is precious little that can be done to fight them…except, perhaps, letting those famous wildfires burn and thin the stands of pines the way nature intended.

Sauce It Right

2008-06-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

And here's another tip, for those who wok: prepare your stir fry sauce in a separate pan, to make sure your thickener is thoroughly cooked and the flavor is just how you like it. Then, when the meat and/or veggies are all fried up, add the sauce and stir a few times to mix it in and heat it through. This avoids the often insipid results of pouring an uncooked sauce mixture directly into the wok with main ingredients.

Easy Enhanced Chow Mein

2008-06-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Nissan makes a line of packaged dry chow mein noodle meals that are actually kinda tasty, and certainly convenient. You just tear off the plastic wrap, peel back the paper cover sealing the plastic tray, remove the extra ingredient packets, pour in water to the fill line, add any of the extra ingredients that should be added prior to cooking, close the cover (this part never works well, but usually is of little consequence), and microwave for six minutes. After you let it stand for an additional minute, you add the final ingredients from the packets, stir, and serve.

Flavor and texture can be greatly improved, however, by using canned broth instead of water, and adding fresh veggies – nappa cabbage, bok choy, bean sprouts, green onions, celery, whatever one might fancy – prior to cooking. Takes a little more time to prepare, but no extra time to cook. (Hold the green onions back and add after cooking for extra zip.) And the results are worth it!

Gettin' Punchy

2008-06-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Subprime mortgage bubble bursts…the U.S. dollar fades against the Euro and other currencies…oil and gas prices rise with stunning rapidity…the stock market stumbles about for weeks like a drunk deacon…

How is it that all of this is suddenly unleashed on America when a looming national election threatens to unhorse the Republican Party, perhaps for many, many years? I know, none of these problems simply cropped up in the past six months, but their cascading body blows to our economy at just this time is hard to dismiss as mere fiscal coincidence. Somebody, frankly, is just flat out not minding the store…or is trying to burn it down.

Scaling Another Culinary Mountain!

2008-06-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! Roasted my first ever leg o' lamb this past weekend! Stuffed it with homegrown rosemary and baked it for the prescribed time plus ten minutes per pound extra due to our underperforming oven. Turned out quite nice, if I and my wife and our neighbors do say so ourselves.

How I Have My Morning Coffee

2008-06-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

I've begun writing again. Not just rewriting manga, which I edit for VIZ Media, but real, all-mine writing. Every morning it's out on the front porch or the back patio with a mug of coffee, a couple of pieces of reading matter, and my journal. The hardware of this journal is paper bound between cardboard covers, while the OS is a biro. Didn't realize how much I missed working on things of my own with no electronic assistance.

The reading matter is usually composed of one piece of fiction and one piece of non-fiction. I'm currently tackling The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells. I'm sure the first is non-fiction and the second fiction, but I have to say that at times I can't quite be sure of that. Good reads, though.

The coffee's brewed up from beans from Costco, usually with Safeway fat free half & half and a shot of sugar free hazelnut Torani syrup. Sometimes I get wacky and grate some nutmeg into it.

What's To Know?

2008-05-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

I keep seeing remarks in various online forums, usually among the comments, dealing with each individual's responsibility to know about and pay any and all taxes for which he or she is liable.

I pay my taxes, but I'd like someone to tell me in what universe it's possible to be sure all one's obligations are known, or even knowable. These days even tax professionals are unable to ferret out everything that could impact a person's tax liability. To ask your average individual to have a thorough grasp of the state and federal tax codes is like the medieval Church expecting the average peasant to be intimately conversant with the Nicean Council's Athanasian objections to Arianism.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Best I can tell this is derived from ancient catholic (as in orthodox) church law, and while it sounds forceful is not in fact anywhere codified in these United States. It may be reasonable for the authorities to stipulate to it concerning traffic laws, since states have programs that at least attempt to educate those who will be using the roads about those laws, but tax codes of every stripe grossly exceed its bounds both as an aphorism and as a viable legal principle.

Menu for Wednesday

2008-04-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Baked a cake today. A sheet cake. Standard triple chocolate cake mix, frosted by melted chocolate chips. Then it was on to dinner: pounded chicken breasts, fresh corn on the cob, and curry green beans.

Nothing remarkable, but it was all my doing. Yes, I am…a husband who cooks! Hoo-ah!

Talkin' Movies 1

2008-04-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Way, way, waaaay back, I saw a movie called Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I was barely more than a toddler, and I loved it! I was completely unaware that it was to earn lasting fame as one of the worst movies ever made.

I have not seen the movie since then, and I've decided to keep it that way. Why add to the pile of backhanded accolades? Some memories should remain evergreen…and perhaps, for good measure, very, very dim.

On the other end of the spectrum, I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was ten. The film had just come out, and being a space enthusiast all fired up by the Apollo program I was keen to see a movie that looked like it was really taking place in outer space. After that first viewing I had one unequivocal reaction: what a stupid movie! It was slow, boring, disconnected, and made no sense! And that blasted "trip" through the stargate went on forever, with no payoff!

Another candidate for permanent avoidance, right? Right. But I couldn't forget the sheer visual splendor of the thing, and already being a reader of Arthur C. Clarke I decided to give the novel a try. It was good Clarke, if not quite "Childhood's End", and by reading it I realized the movie did make sense – just not the sort of sense you expect out of flicks like The Mysterians or an episode of "Fireball XL5". So, armed with the literary insights thus gleaned, I took in a second viewing and…became a complete convert to Kubrick's unparalleled cinematic vision of man's future beyond the bounds of Earth. I saw it five more times in the theaters, and who knows how man times via VHS (still mulling over getting a DVD edition).

I've rarely given any other movie that much of a chance to change my initially poor reaction, but that was one case where I'm glad I did. As for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, I've a feeling that a lack of a second viewing qualifies as neglect of the most benign variety.

Flapper Food

2008-04-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Chicken wings. Baked, microwaved, fried…they make life worthwhile. But if you're serious about chicken wings, you can't just cook 'em, you have to be ready to do some serious seasoning and/or saucing. Home cooked is best, as it allows you to flavor them to your taste. And when you bake or microwave, you get a rich dripping that is truly culinary gold. This dripping provides the basis for a sauce that turns a side of rice – preferably with plenty of fresh veggies mixed in – into a taste of heaven. It goes nicely on potatoes too, but rice is best.

Restaurants and saloons just don't have quite the requisite touch, though some do a decent job on good nights. (The local brew pub gets closest, and for the best price.) And you don't get the side benefits of the dripping and, for me personally, the unalloyed joy of munching on the wingtips.

Chicken wings. Nature's most perfect food.

Naval Gazing

2008-04-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

So how's the Navy?

Odd question, perhaps, but that's what a Naval buff like me sometimes asks. And if even the Navy's own highly sanitized (if rather casually updated) site is any indication, it's not in very great shape. Which is a pity, 'cause them big ol' ships are darn purty!

I'm a fan of the ships, I really am. I've got books and books on them, from the Civil War to recent times, and I find them all fascinating (even the support vessels). I am not, however, all that keen on the organization which, like the other sectors of the defense establishment, seems intent on maintaining inadequate force-in-depth. Sure, it mostly has to do with money and politics, but it would be nice if more than lip service was paid to actual military need once in a while.

The Dawn of All-You-Can-Eat Asian

2008-04-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I love buffets, especially chinese buffets. My first chinese buffet experience was at the Golden Coin, in Tempe, AZ, back during Christmas of 1973. It was housed in a defunct burger joint of unknown provenance, and had a single small serving line that featured fried rice, chow mein noodles, sweet and sour port, a couple of entrees, egg foo yung, and fried wonton chips. My life changed forever.

Fast forward to May of 1977, when I moved from Missouri to Arizona, and started going to the Golden Coin as often as I could manage. Friday was the best, when they had their fried fish. But the place was busy, being the one chinese buffet in the town that also featured ASU and the Sun Devils footfall team. Many a night, while I tucked into my own heaping plateful, I'd espy several college footballers piling small mountains of fried rice and noodles onto their plates and then going back for seconds, thirds, and fourths. It was an amazing sight, and I rather envied their ability to get the most bang for their bucks.

Much has changed in the intervening years. That particular Golden Coin is gone, though one still exists in Phoenix, and chinese buffets have evolved into far more elaborate establishments with many islands and various asian cuisines. I enjoy these a lot, but they'll never quite match the experience that Golden Coin offered.

Gopo Gossum

2008-04-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'm now getting very close to completing a reading collection of classic Pogo books. These are the ones that Walt Kelly himself edited, more or less, from his famous comic strip. I used to read my grandmother's (yes, my grandmother's!) collection of these avidly when I was a kid, and I'm happy to say that they hold up magnificently today. Many of these volumes contain material that never appeared in the strips, from linking illustrations to bits of poetry to various Cold War and fairytale satires. For a true Pogophile, they're must-haves.

A new series of hardback volumes that are intended to present a comprehensive collection of all Pogo comic strips is in the offing, and that's something I keenly anticipate. But that otherwise worthy goal means they won't have the charming eccentricities that Kelly put into his own compilations. Have no fear, though, the material they will contain is the stuff that made Pogo a legend in his medium.

Waiting For a Download

2008-04-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

While I wait for a major download to finish, which will allow me to complete a professional obligation, I suppose I could write a mission statement for Bull Darts. Then again, that would just tie me down unnecessarily, since I sure as heck don't know what I'll likely be blathering about as time goes on. Nothing from nothing, as Billy Preston used to sing back in the day.

I know, I'll start with a haiku I wrote in high school:

Boiled liverwurst

Tastes terrible in sandwiches

Tastes worse with celery

Little has improved since then, as I will no doubt demonstrate, so stay tuned!